Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the leaders of France, Great Britain and Canada of wanting to help the Palestinian militant group Hamas after having threatened to take “concrete measures” if Israel did not stop his last offensive in Gaza.
Criticism, echoing similar remarks by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Saar, was part of a response from the Israeli government against international and stronger international pressure on the conflict in Gaza.
“You are on the wrong side of humanity and you are on the wrong side of history,” said Netanyahu.
While the flow of images of destruction and hunger in Gaza continued, fueling demonstrations in the countries of the world, Israel has struggled to transform world opinion, which has moved more and more against it.
“It is difficult to convince at least some people, certainly on the far left in the United States and in certain European countries, that what Israel does, is a defense war,” said former Israeli diplomat Yaki Dayan.
“But that’s how it is perceived in Israel and filling this gap is sometimes an impossible mission,” he said.
Israeli officials were particularly concerned about growing calls for European countries, including France, to follow other people like Spain and Ireland to recognize a Palestinian state, as part of a two -state solution to resolve decades of conflict in the region.
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Netanyahu maintains that a Palestinian state would threaten Israel and supervised the murder of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington on Tuesday by a man who would have shouted “free Palestine” as a clear example of this threat.
He said that “exactly the same song” was heard during the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
“They don’t want a Palestinian state. They want to destroy the Jewish state,” he said in a press release on the social media platform.
“I could never understand how this simple truth escapes the leaders of France, Great Britain, Canada and others,” he said, adding that any movement of Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state “would reward these murderers with the ultimate price”.
Instead of advancing peace, the three leaders “enhanced Hamas to continue to fight forever,” he said.
The Israeli leader, whose government depends on the support of the far right, said that Hamas, who published a statement welcoming this decision, thanked French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mark Carney of Canada for what he said is their request for the immediate end of the conflict.
The declaration of Monday leaders did not ask for the immediate end of the conflict, but a judgment of the military offensive of Israel in Gaza and a lifting of its restrictions on humanitarian aid. Israel had prevented the aid from entering Gaza since March, before relaxing its blockade this week.
“By issuing their request – filled with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not in Hamas – these three leaders actually declared that they wanted Hamas to remain in power,” said Netanyahu.
“And they give them the hope of establishing a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.”
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noel Barrot, said that France, which, like Great Britain and Canada, designates Hamas as a terrorist organization, was “undoubtedly in the security of Israel”.
He said he was determined to fight anti -Semitism and that he was “absurd and slanderous” to accuse supporters of a two -state solution to encourage anti -Semitism or Hamas.
Asked about the remarks of Netanyahu, the British Minister of the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard, said that London was with Israel in their right to self-defense, “but that self-defense must be carried out within the limits of international humanitarian law.”
“Right now, we are quickly holding against terrorism, but we also want to make sure that help between Gaza,” he told Times Radio.
–Report by James Mackenzie; Additional report by May Angel, Richard Lough in Paris and William James in London; Edition by Philippa Fletcher